What would the world be if they show themselves?

It's a question that a lot of people ask themselves. If extraterrestrials come how would the world change? How would religion change?
Well, this is what I think.
We as a species have made a lot of mistakes and, personally, I think we made a big mistake posting out home planet's coordinates on our probes and satellites. I think that if extraterrestrials come, they wouldn't be too friendly. We're talking about a civilization thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of years ahead of us. We don't even have space flight down pat let alone try to defend try to defend ourselves against these mysterious and, possibly, malevolent beings.
Not to mention the effect of their existence on our religions. Sadly, most issues on this earth are caused by religions. Most religious people think that great beings created man out of inanimate things, dust, clay what have you but if extraterrestrials arrive what would happen to our religions?

I'm extremely interested in what my fellow ATS readers have to say about this subject. Please feel free to post creative responses and please do not be childish. Speak your minds!

Depends if Aliens have a religion of thier own, or not.

reply to post by whiskyfuel010


the effect after the initial shock would be the one thing no govt or religion can offer HOPE....
Hope for a future off of this planet, Hope for a new generation new industries new economy new JOBS. new everything. Of course we would make mistakes as we venture out into the unknown but we would endure new alliances would be formed and new enemies too i'm sure but a better question is why have they not revealed themselves? How bad does it have to get before they step in and save us from ourselves. we obviously cant do it ourselves or we would have done so already. Another thing every human conflict would instantly end for there would be something bigger than ourselves to consider tptb do not want this cause then they would be the minority
and they would lose there control over us

ATS would lose half there threads and posts thats what would change

reply to post by whiskyfuel010
I'm reminded of the scene in Independence Day when all the people gathered on top of a building holding signs and welcoming the visitors.....and then were zapped by the death ray.

Originally posted by whiskyfuel010
It's a question that a lot of people ask themselves. If extraterrestrials come how would the world change?

Actually, most people would take it in stride, but the large number of dogmatic idiots of the world would tear it completely apart and set it on fire, kind of like they're doing now, only faster and with more enthusiasm. Not that this would be a bad thing. There's nothing inherently good or right about the status quo. A change like that might ultimately result in a wonderful paradise for the survivors.

We'll just have to see. It probably won't happen the way you imagine.

Originally posted by whiskyfuel010
We as a species have made a lot of mistakes and, personally, I think we made a big mistake posting out home planet's coordinates on our probes and satellites. I think that if extraterrestrials come, they wouldn't be too friendly. We're talking about a civilization thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of years ahead of us. We don't even have space flight down pat let alone try to defend try to defend ourselves against these mysterious and, possibly, malevolent beings.

Well lucky for us as you said "We don't even have space flight down pat". That goes for our probes also. So I would imagine that long, long before our probes are able to reach an intelligent civilization we will probable be able to get out there and retrieve them ourselves. If an intelligent civilization has already found them then they probably already new we were here anyway or would have found us anyway because they would probably have been coming to this star system to check it out.

i dont think religion would change a lot but it will just make a lot of people more open minded about this and about our governmt(if u are from the U.S)

also it could of just been aliens that people saw other then angels back in the days

biggest thing will be the opening our minds and knowing that theyre is more out there then here

I personally believe that if extraterrestrials ever show themselves it will only be to help us with something that we are just in no way currently capable of handling by ourselves. We are talking about beings that are more than likely hundreds of years more advanced than us, technologically, socially and spiritually (possibly thousands, maybe even millions).

While I do believe that there are probably bad beings out there, I believe that as a result of highly advanced technology far beyond our own capabilities, most alien races have evolved beyond malevolent tendencies and the need for anything that we have, and as a result would only interact with us if WE need them.

As far as what would happen, I think religion would take a new face and more and more people would begin to find themselves somewhere in the middle and just start living their lives. I think after much legal litigation on behalf of greedy people, we will begin to see incredible technologies on the market and a new economy emerging that would change the world forever and make it a much more peaceful and safe place for all of us.

I was raised completely without religion so it's hard for me to imagine an alien religion. If there is one, and they come here, being more advanced than us, I would find myself wondering what their beliefs are, and if their beliefs are actual knowledge, rather than myths (or questions, wonderings). I don't care about a religion, only finding out the "truth". Maybe they know it.

It would be nice, if they're friendly, and they could give us free energy. It would solve a lot of problems, and save people a lot of money.

Hopefully, they don't look like 12 ft praying/preying mantises

The mistake i believe is commonly made regarding first contact is to consider it a clash between civilizations.

We, humans, are not a unique an cohesive civilization. We are a melting pot (seen from space) of different cultures more than often killing each other than playing along nice.
Why would it be different for them? Why do we think than Aliens are perfect beings living in harmony with the universe, themselves and with each other?

let's put it this way: they can't land in some random place, but it's impossible from space to tell exactly where it is the power node of this planet, and the answer is simple: there isn't. So let's say the place where it's most probable the first contact will happen is the ISS. It's the only fully operational settlement in space of our race.

Who they would meet? Scientists. From many cultures. Who would the aliens would be? Scientists, from probably many cultures. That is the first contact. Because before hand shakes, speeches, dinners and inaugurations of monuments, you need to communicate. And this is done by using physics, chemistry, math and geometry in order to find common ground. So imagine that next to the Alpha a nice shimmering alien craft is docked to the ISS. That is the first contact. And there brilliant minds try to communicate, taking MONTHS, maybe years to establish some common language structure with which share some words.

meanwhile on earth we would have humanity waiting to understand what's going on. Religions my dears don't crumble.. they adapt to survive and try to get the best out of the situation. Islam back in the age was the religion of science and respect, while Christians where burning redheads and black cats on stakes. Then Europe evolved, Illumination and Industrialization came in and in less than 20 years Christianity evolved and adapted. Same thing with Islam, they adapted to serve an oligarchy willing to enslave its own people and give some "moral basis" to the insanity of the modern Jihad. Religions don't fall, they never do, they will just say: "of course they had been created by God as much as the humans, didn't you get the memo?"

Politics and economics I believe will spend many many words on the matter, with financial institutions making many from scary people, politicians getting votes from scary or hopeful people and most of the humanity not giving a frack of it.

it does depend alot on what they tell us, religion mayh not change as much, because religons like the catholic church are now accepting the possibility of aliens